A letter to the editor about the TSA 5B Sou Wing Ting Anthea
Dear Editor,
The debate on the scrapping of Territory-wide System Assessment (TSA) in Primary 3 has become a controversial topic in the recent days. Even though this assessment seems to be a long way past me, the topic aroused my interest. A few days ago, I went to a public library and find some TSA exercises to have a look. Surprisingly, the paper was a lot more difficult than the one I did when I was in Primary 3, though we were actually taking the same exam. And thus, I am writing to express my view about the scrapping of the TSA in Primary 3, for the sake of enhancing the education system of Hong Kong.
To begin with, I strongly agree that TSA in Primary 3 should be cancelled as it is not necessary and not beneficial to students and schools.
First, it is unnecessary because there is also a TSA in Primary 6.So if the government wants to know the standard of different primary schools, they can still collect the data in the Primary 6 TSA. And for Primary 3 students, the government can take their internal academic results for reference as they will also sit for TSA again 3 years later. Therefore, there is no need for students to do TSA twice in the primary school life.
Second, it is detrimental to the physical and mental well-being of students who are just primary 3. When I was nine, the only reason I had to wake up early at weekends was that I had to watch my favourite cartoon but not going to school to do TSA practices. What a child at nine should do is just to have more happy and joyful childhood memories. The additional assessment will only cause a heavy burden on them as they already have to handle various exams and tests at this young age. We should ensure that these kids will have enough time for leisure and we should not let them study in this stressed environment when they are just in Primary 3. Furthermore, when they grow up, they have to face different secondary schools’ interviews, the DSE, and many other stressful things. So what I consider is that, for a primary 3 student, a nine-year-old child, is it really a must for them to have TSA and a lot of drillings even though they have to attend it again when they are in primary 6, or should we just let those innocent and adorable kids get rid of this assessment to have a little more resting time?
Besides, the government claims that the aim of proposing this Territory-wide System Assessment is just to estimate the standard and education progress of primary schools in Hong Kong, so that schools should not train students for the assessment as it will not be a system to criticize the schools which cannot meet the average standard. However, actually the government is the one who has to be responsible for the drilling culture. Many primary schools blame that the difficulty level of TSA is too high and it requires students to do extremely challenging tasks in limited time. Worse still, the government will even warn the schools that have poor results. Therefore, although the schools do not want to make their students so depressed, they have to push them harshly to do more drilling in order to improve their performance.
To conclude, the Territory-wide System Assessment is neither necessary and beneficial to students so I definitely support the scrapping of TSA in Primary 3.
Here are some suggestions on what the Education Bureau, schools and parents should do. Firstly, the Education Bureau should adjust all the TSA papers to a suitable level, which meet the syllabus of what the students are learning. Moreover, they should set maximum school hours for schools to prevent them from setting too many additional classes for students. Secondly, for schools, the schools should ensure that the students will have a balanced school life and they should not ignore the importance of sports and rest. And lastly, for parents, they should not push their children too much as it will make them over-pressurized. They should also always be aware of their children’s emotions by chatting more with them and listening to their thoughts.
Finally, I sincerely hope that the government can put more effort into improving the education system and it should also cooperate with schools and parents to build a friendly schooling environment for students, our pillars of the future.
Yours faithfully,
Chris
Chris Wong